Tank
Tank refers to a party member whose role is to keep all attention on him to protect weaker members. There are two types of a tank: A Blood Tank that performs by soaking up the majority of the damage while reducing the amount suffered as much as possible through defense (typically a Warrior); and an Evasion Tank that performs simply by dodging as much as possible (typically a Rogue, although a sufficiently talented Arcane Warrior Mage can also perform quite well). Blood Tank Overview Warrior tanks will require the Threaten and Taunt abilities as soon as possible and use the highest armor value equipment available. The goal is to maintain the attention of the targets on the battlefield. The Weapon and Shield Talents provide the best options for a blood tank, though any talent tree could suffice with sufficient skill. Branches two and three in particular bestow critical abilities such as Shield Wall and Shield Block. Setting up Shield Wall can let the tank mitigate a significant portion of damage. Equipment In the world of Dragon Age, enemies are attracted to the party member who is wearing the heaviest armor and conveniently many pieces of Heavy Armor and Massive Armor also carry helpful tanking stats in addition to their very large armor ratings. Some Armor Sets also bestow useful benefits such as reduced stamina cost for abilities or a simple armor bonus. However, very few armor sets are worth putting together for their bonus when you can mix and match pieces of other sets for better benefits. When choosing a weapon and shield, you obviously want to choose the weapon with the highest damage and the shield with the highest defense, but pay attention to any additional effects on equipment. For example the Oathkeeper blade offers a very much appreciated bonus to healing spells to the wielder, and Eamon's Shield gives +25 Stamina and +6 Defense. When choosing Runes, you'll want to go for Physical and Spell Resistance mostly. Talents Weapon and Shield tanks should focus on the Shield talents first and moving into Branch One (the melee talents) later. However, let it be known that Threaten and Taunt sometimes aren't enough to maintain enemy attention. If a damage dealer in your party is performing perhaps a little too well, he or she may end up tanking as a result. Sometimes, it's best to let the tank attract the attention of all enemies in the room and let the DDs pick off targets one by one, and sometimes it's best to have all characters focus on one target. During one-on-one fights (usually Bosses), a tank will need to output a good deal of damage him or herself, so don't completely neglect Branch One of the talents. Try to find a good balance between offense and defense; your playstyle will play a role here. Attributes A Blood Tank's key attribute is Constitution, but Strength is also equally important. Health and Physical Resistance are integral in this setup, and a high strength attribute is required to wear the heavy armor pieces. Willpower is a secondary stat, as Stamina doesn't typically run low for a tank except in long fights (and some of the better armor pieces actually carry Stamina boosts anyway) but Mental Resistance is always good. Dexterity is not pivotal unless you are going to take a more offensive approach, but the evasion benefits are useful. Magic is an afterthought, it may improve the potency of poultices, but you should have a healer in the party to watch the tank anyway and let potions be used only in emergencies. Cunning is of least importance in this role. Specializations Useful specializations for a blood tank are Templar and Reaver. Templar gives a useful bevy of anti-Mage abilities and a fantastic AoE attack. Reaver's Devour ability can heal a small amount of health over time and Frightening Appearance further boosts the power of Taunt and Threaten. Further, Blood Frenzy plays very well into the blood tanking role as the lower the tank's health, the more powerful he becomes (although keep in mind your Healer will absolutely need to be focused on the tank during the Frenzy). Tactics TBA Evasion Tank Overview An Evasion Tank is fairly self explanatory: it tanks by not taking damage. Rogues with the Evasion talent and high Dexterity and a Duelist specialization are able to evade a significant amount of attacks from enemies. Similarly, a Mage with Arcane Warrior specialization and applicable Spells can also dodge the majority of enemy attacks. However, both classes will find it difficult to maintain the control of the battlefield without Taunt and Threaten and as a result must compensate with damage and crowd control. Evasion tanks are not able to be used to full effectiveness towards the beginning of the game as the role requires a fair amount of talents deep into several branches and specializations. Furthermore, Evasion tanks have very limited utility against spellcaster enemies and are much better suited for one-on-one battles such as bosses or Elite targets. Evasion tanks make excellent "off-tanks" or "backup tanks" in the event of several difficult enemies at once or if your main tank falls in battle. Rogue - Equipment A Rogue will be focusing mostly on Dexterity and Constitution and to a lesser extent Cunning and as a result will not have a high enough Strength attribute to wear Heavy and Massive armor. Instead, the Rogue should focus on gear that boosts Dexterity and Evasion where possible, and when this is not possible, equip a set that reduces stamina costs. Since the Rogue will have a particularly high Dexterity and Cunning score in this setup, it's generally a good idea to dual wield two daggers so that they can benefit from the damage bonuses. Most daggers have critical/backstab bonuses, but since the evasion tank is not likely to be able to Backstab (without Coup de Grace), Daggers with Attack/Damage or Armor Penetration may be better choices. Spending points in Branch One of Dual Weapon Talents will further improve damage and defense. Rogue - Talents The Evasion talent is the most important talent for the evasion Rogue, obtain this as soon as possible. A Rogue must prioritize high damage through melee talents and/or poison bombs and a fair amount of crowd control with traps is recommended. Branch Three of Dual Weapon Talents can do a fair amount of area of effect damage, otherwise Momentum can provide a steady stream of damage but this will require a fair amount of talents in Branch One to maximize DPS. The easiest way to play a Rogue evasion tank is to let the Rogue charge headstrong into a throng of enemies so that he or she is the first target seen and then use Dual Weapon Sweep and Whirlwind to get a large amount of hostility as soon as the battle starts. This is ill advised if you become surrounded because Rogues do not have the ability to prevent flanking damage like a Shield Warrior, so it is better to gain their attention and then use choke points such as a door or narrow path to draw them into so that only a few enemies can attack at once and let your damage dealing allies pick them off as they come through. This is not recommended with spellcasters or archers unless you're able to use some form of environment to block their shots and spells, however. It is not so much of a problem with proper crowd control, so consider traps or taking along a mage to do so. Rogue - Attributes A Rogue tank's primary attribute is first and foremost Dexterity. The whole point of this tank is to dodge and dodge frequently. Constitution is also rather important: a Rogue won't be wearing Heavy and Massive armor lest they quickly run out of Stamina thanks to fatigue, so if they get hit, they get hit hard. More Health is never a bad choice for a tank. Obtain enough Strength to wear the best Rogue gear available (preferably a piece with Dexterity and/or evasion). Willpower is extremely important in this role, as the Rogue will go through stamina like nothing in order to maintain the attention. Cunning is fairly important since you'll have the Lethality talent as a result of choosing Evasion, but boost Strength first before putting points here. Magic is as useful to a Rogue as a Warrior: only as an emergency. The points you receive from the Circle Tower quest will likely be more than enough. Rogue - Specializations Duelist offers several useful defense bonuses and Pinpoint Strike can make the Rogue fairly lethal. Bard can boost damage and defense, or stamina/mana regeneration. Not terribly integral to the tanking aspect, but Bard is a far better choice than Ranger or Assassin. Rogue - Tactics TBA Mage - Overview Unlike Rogue, an Arcane Warrior specialized Mage can use their Magic attribute as Strength and wear Heavy and Massive armor to help with the hostility management (and some pieces can give very useful bonuses). With Fade Shroud and a useful selection of spells, the Arcane Warrior is an extremely powerful force to be reckoned with. More information on Arcane Warrior can be found on its respective page. Mage - Tactics TBA